Texting raises money for dioxin victims

A major charity campaign was launched on November 13 and will collect
donations through mobile texting to help Agent Orange victims and poor
households enjoy the coming traditional Tet (lunar new year).

People can support the campaign by texting TET to 1406. Each SMS costs 12,000 VND (0.6 USD).

The Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam Red Cross (who is one of the
partners running the campaign), Doan Van Thai, told a press conference
held on the day that the donations will be used to provide gifts worth
from 300,000 VND (15 USD) each, to at least 1 million poor households
and Agent Orange victims nationwide.

The Red Cross is
cooperating with the Ministry of Information and Communications and the
Vietnam Television Corporation on the campaign, which will run from now
until February 14, 2013. The next lunar new year starts from February
10, 2013.

Reviewing the charity text-message campaigns the
organisation has run over the past three years, Thai said that
remarkable results had been achieved in mobilising community support to
help the poor and victims of natural disasters nationwide.

The society began in 1999, and has since raised more than 1.3 trillion
VND (nearly 63 million USD) to support more than 8.2 million poor
households during the Tet festival.

In 2010, they received
nearly 21 billion VND (1 million USD) in a 45-day text-message campaign
to help natural disaster victims in the central provinces .

The
money was used to provide emergency aid, including 418 tonnes of rice
and 1,200 cows, and also helped to build 110 houses and provide 120
scholarships for children.

The Red Cross also collected
nearly 4.35 billion VND (over 200,000 USD) to help people in the
country’s poor districts in 2011, and 4.68 billion VND (222,000 USD) to
help victims of the Tsunami in Japan last year./.VNA